This new experimental robot gripping arm can 'taste' what it touches

It's not special anymore, because researchers at UC Davis working with colleagues Carnegie Mellon have developed a way for an experimental soft robotic gripper to 'taste' things as well, using bacteria engineered to allow it to detect a specific chemical. The robot employs a 'biosensing module' that's built using an engineered strain of E. coli bacteria to indicate the presence of a chemical called IPTG by producing a protein, which in turn triggers a circuit built into the robot that's designed to detect light.